The following relates generally to wireless communication, and more specifically to systems and methods to indicate a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and a channel quality indicator (CQI) value for a wireless channel for wireless communication systems that support a higher order MCS. Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time-division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.
Generally, a wireless multiple-access communications system may include a number of base stations, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple mobile devices. Base stations may communicate with mobile devices on downstream and upstream links. Each base station has a coverage range, which may be referred to as the coverage area of the cell. A base station may grant a mobile device resources for upstream transmissions. The grant may be based on CQI data about the downstream channel. The base station and mobile device may access a CQI reporting table and an MCS table to determine the CQI value from the CQI data as well as the MCS to use for a transmission. As wireless communication systems increase their support of additional MCSs, existing CQI tables and MCS tables may not include data entries that account for these additional MCSs that are supported by the communication system.